Portland Riots Continue After Withdrawal of Federal Officers; Target Local Police
Riots have continued in Portland, Oregon, for several nights despite the withdrawal of federal law enforcement officials, as left-wing activists from Black Lives Matter and Antifa have attacked local police and battled them in the city streets.
On Wednesday night into Thursday morning, for example, the Portland Police Department declared a riot as left-wing extremists attacked the department’s East Precinct, disabling security cameras and attempting to set the building on fire.
Tonight's group outside of East Precinct destructing security cameras. https://t.co/3T2B6pbb0K
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 6, 2020
Tonight's group outside of East Precinct's entrance doors setting fire. https://t.co/8SnwFd7Zof
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 6, 2020
#Antifa have started a fire on the front door of the Portland Police east precinct. They tore off the barricade and placed tinder around the fire. They’re trying to burn down the building. #PortlandRiotspic.twitter.com/2UN7o21dZy
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 6, 2020
Video footage showed police pursuing rioters as they moved through residential streets.
Be a shame if everyone sent this Portland Antifa video from last night to @MazieHironohttps://t.co/EkmhLrR59I
— Jimmy Lee (@CEOJimmyLee) August 6, 2020
Pushing people east on Stark. Lasers are being shined at officers who have shot some pepper balls in response. pic.twitter.com/SmfwfmLkQ3
— Hannah Ray Lambert (@TheHannahRay) August 6, 2020
Some residents were unhappy to see them, according to oregonlive.com:
Neighbors were mixed in their reaction to the crowd. At least other two bystanders got into shouting matches with protesters after screaming “all lives matter” at the crowd. One man who claimed to live in the neighborhood walked toward police, held out his arms and shouted, “I live here. You need to leave!”
These were only the latest such disturbances, as rioters in Portland have targeted local police in recent days.
The night before, rioters targeted the local police union, and blocked traffic. Shots were reported at one location. A local driver in a pickup truck dragged a motorcycle that had been placed in the road by a rioter to stop the truck from leaving.
Mass Gathering Outside of Portland Police Association Office, Shots Fired (Photo) https://t.co/PCbDdQQBSnpic.twitter.com/RhqDFDOapN
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) August 5, 2020
Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell — who is black — spoke out earlier this week:
“Enough is enough,’’ Lovell said. “This is not forwarding the goals” of the Black Lives Movement, he said.
Lovell said it’s one thing if people have a desire to speak out against racial inequities, but “if you’re trying to burn, burglarize buildings or throw Molotov cocktails, rocks or other things that injure officers … to me, there’s no message there.”
As of last week, it was axiomatic on the left and in much of the mainstream media to pretend that the violence in Portland — which had raged nightly since late May — was President Donald Trump’s fault, as the administration sent federal officers to protect the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse from constant attack by so-called “peaceful protesters.”
However, over the past week, violence has continued to be a feature of nightly demonstrations, even though some of the protests — according to local police — begin with nonviolent demonstrations (albeit without permits from authorities).
Mainstream media outlets — including the Wall Street Journal — persisted in describing the demonstrations “mostly peaceful” after a weekend of violence, including attacks on local police.
In a Senate hearing earlier this week about the violence Portland, Democrats refused to condemn Antifa specifically when invited to do so by Republicans.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.